First Month

In honor of Declan's first month I am finally getting some blogging time, ha ha! I wanted to share the nitty gritty of his arrival for those interested. Full disclosure, most of this is copied from an email I sent to a handful of friends last month, so I cheated. Sorry it took so long to get this out there. Our story wasn't nearly as scary as some peoples' but it was still very emotional for me. The first month has flown by and we're starting to get into more of a routine. We've had a handful of nights lately of 6-7 hour stretches of sleep capped by an unprecedented 8 hour sleep last night. I suspect it won't be a regular thing but it has been nice when it has happened. Declan has very good neck control and strength so far. He also has started grabbing things and mildly engaging with the toys hanging from his play mat. We've started to see some faint smiles on his face but most aren't deliberate yet. Twice he has smiled and laughed in his sleep. We're still a ways away from awake laughing but it's adorable even in his sleep. He's been particularly fussy this week due to a growth spurt (like he needs one) and wants to eat all the time. I'm starting to wonder if he'll end up being taller than both of us. Only lots of time will tell. On to the birth story:

After almost reaching 41 weeks we headed into the hospital for induction. I really have no idea when the kid was planning on trying to come. We came in at 8am Friday and they got the Pitocin set up right away. I was contracting by mid-morning and by lunch I had them put in an epidural as the pain picked up (my plan all along). They broke my water shortly after the epi kicked in and found some meconium in the fluid. My bladder was also apparently taking a beating because my urine was pink. In the late afternoon I started trembling a bit, sort of like having the flu chills but without being cold. The nurse said that hormones cause that. I was surprised because from everything I read I had never heard of that before.


After laboring until 6:30pm or so I was fully dilated and the doc suggested starting to push. After 90 minutes, even though I was fully dilated, the doc discovered I had a fever and baby's heart rate had increased while he hadn't progressed down too much. It was time for a c-section, something we realized was a strong possibility. They moved very quickly and had him out within 30 minutes. Jake, by my side, watched in shock as they pulled this huge baby from me. I think everyone was wondering where I had been hiding him because I didn't look like I was carrying a baby that large. I heard them say 10 pounds 12oz and I was floored. At this point the shaking returned, much more violently. I couldn't focus it was so bad. Jake brought Declan over to me and I could barely focus on him it was so bad. He went off to the NICU. I apparently lost a lot of blood during and after the procedure. The shaking was so violent after they delivered him I could barely focus on anything. They actually gave me a mild sedative. They returned me to my room for recovery and Jake eventually went to the NICU. Both Declan and I were put on antibiotics and he was in the NICU until Sunday afternoon. While they were treating me I was very in and out because I was so tired and still shaking. Apparently I continued to bleed for a while and they almost transfused me but I finally stopped. By the time Jake returned and started talking to me I finally started to focus again and then nurse seemed relieved. Before transferring me to my "mother and baby" room they wheeled me down to the NICU to see Declan, on they gurney no less. I'm so glad they did this because I had been so out of it at our first meeting. I was still very tired but so happy to meet my little guy.

He and I were both on antibiotics for two days but all of his tests came back clear of any infections and he was otherwise in great health. By Saturday evening they had me up and out of bed and by Sunday morning I was able to walk, under Jake's careful eye, down to the NICU to visit him. They released him from the NICU on Sunday afternoon. We were all released on Monday evening to come home and not a moment too soon because I was pretty tired of being in the hospital at that point

Needless to say, for the next child, we are going to go ahead and schedule a c-section because subsequent children typically don't end up being smaller. Hopefully when the time comes things will be a little less "eventful".